


Lineage

by llwydion



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Crack and Angst, Gen, Non-Linear Narrative, actually im not even sure what to call it, but also kind of linear, character study? but of multiple characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-20
Updated: 2018-03-20
Packaged: 2019-04-05 01:09:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14032839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/llwydion/pseuds/llwydion
Summary: Yoda's line, through the years.





	Lineage

**Author's Note:**

> Basically a character study of everyone (of note) who's jedi-related to yoda (master-padawan relationships). I've included brief mentions of characters who are not really introduced in the movies, and if you're confused as to who they are, the end notes have some description of them.
> 
> (haha i really should be doing homework oh well)

No one knows who Grandmaster Yoda’s master was, or even remembers a time when he was young. To the inhabitants of the temple, the Grandmaster has always been small, green, and wizened. The cane ( _sorry, gimer stick, Master, ow! Please stop smacking me in the shins with it!_ ) was a more recent addition, but only the oldest Jedi even remember when he obtained it. He watches with old, tired eyes, watches with the weight of wisdom and age bowing his shoulders and bending his spine, watches as generations of Jedi rise and Fall and fall and slowly, ever so slowly, grows smaller and more wizened. He watches his line, watches them err and stray from the path, and all the while, with the same benediction ( _or a curse_ ) on his lips.

“May the Force be with you.”

He watches, and he warns, because what else can he do? He is old, and one being cannot change the fate of the universe.

* * *

Dooku is bred for dueling. It’s in his bones. He watches the world sharply, always watching with the eyes of a hawk, as if the world would one day rise up and strike him down in return for the successes he’s gleaned. There is fear in his eyes, the fear of being abandoned, the fear of loss, the fear of being helpless, and his Master sees this fear and knows. If Dooku is not raised a Jedi, he will Fall.

Master Yoda teaches him Makashi, in an effort to channel his fear into something useful. He learns (perhaps all too well) and elevates the style into an art form. Every wrist flick, every pointed jab, becomes a way for him to probe out his enemy’s weaknesses. He pours these teachings of stillness and movement, of quiet and noise, of waiting and probing, into his padawans.

It is still not enough.

Komari disappears, Qui-gon dies, and he meets Sheev Palpatine.

( _Rise, my new apprentice. I name you Darth Tyranus._ )

When Dooku Falls, he Falls like a meteor through the atmosphere: blindingly bright and achingly beautiful, raining down destruction and carnage in his wake. He Falls because he is afraid, because he is angry, because he is flawed, and yet he still strove for cold perfection. He Falls because he does not realize he, too, is human.

* * *

Qui-gon is raised for peace. Though his master teaches him Makashi, teaches him to hold his friends at arm’s length, his enemies by his side, and his cards close at his chest, he meets Tahl, he makes friends, and he passionately embraces the world around him with fervor. This ends sometimes in him tasting fruits not fit for human consumption, which means days in the Healing Halls and endless amounts of frustration on his master’s part (and later, his padawans’).

He becomes known as the Maverick Jedi Master, the One Who Always Defies the Council, the Reason Master Windu is Bald (this is no fault of his own, and _no, Mace, that mission doesn’t count, both of us had to shave for that one_ ). His mission record is impeccable, as are his lightsaber skills ( _as expected of one of Yoda’s line_ , they say), but he favors the elegant flair of Ataru like his grandmaster instead of the sharp precision of his master’s Makashi. No matter now, because his master has left the Order, and his grandmaster is too busy with the affairs of the Council to worry about his lightsaber form.

Feemor is a bright young padawan, not many years younger than Qui-Gon himself, and they work as an effective Jedi field team until Feemor is knighted and a young, black haired boy crashes into Qui-Gon’s legs one early morning while he is walking towards the Room of a Thousand Fountains. The boy’s name is Xanatos, and soon Qui-Gon has a second padawan who is mischevious and sad and clever.

When Xanatos is sixteen, Qui-Gon kills his father, and his clever second apprentice Falls.

Twelve years later, he meets Obi-wan, and the anger in his eyes is too much like Xanatos. Qui-Gon rejects the boy and leaves for Bandomeer.

It is not until Obi-wan throws himself on a bomb (planted by Xanatos, of all people, sometimes the Force is a curse binding us all) that Qui-Gon recognizes the potential for good in him.

( _Impulsive_ , his master had said. _Rash and reckless, too busy rushing into decisions to recognize how you’re hurting the people around you._ And on Naboo, he realizes how right his master was.)

In the end, it is not enough. He trained a brilliant fighter and sees the potential in another, but he is skewered by a Sith, his lungs feel like they’re on fire, and the only thing he can think of is how bright Anakin is in the Force, just like Obi-wan. And in that moment, he truly feels regret.

* * *

Obi-wan is nurtured for war, and he excels at it. He is a sharp, bright youth, all dry wit and excellent grades and beautiful combat form. He is raised in peace, raised with love and affection, raised for war and suffering and sorrow.

He is twelve and angry because if he doesn’t beat Bruck Chun here, he’s going to live in peace forever. He’s thirteen and desperate because he knows that Qui-Gon Jinn is his last chance, and there is a bomb and a Fallen former padawan and a tunnel with so many people, so he makes the logical choice and uses his body as a shield. He is sixteen and afraid because he has never seen such sorrow on his master’s face, and Master Tahl is dying dying dead. He’s twenty-five and Naboo-bound, and they’ve stumbled across a shining star on a remote desert world and this young boy holds so much potential. He’s twenty-five and frustrated because he wishes his master would just _talk_ to him instead of deciding things all for himself. He’s twenty-five and sorrow has torn his heart out from where it should reside because his master is lying on a pyre, he is a knight ( _the first field Knighting in over a century_ , they will later say. They will not mention anything of importance.), and Anakin Skywalker is his new padawan.

He is thirty-five and a General in the Grand Army of the Republic, a battalion of men under his command and a silver tongue in his head. He is thirty-six and “dead”, changed into his “killer” with his former padawan on his tail and an assassination to foil. He is thirty-seven and Satine is dying, and her death is only another link in a long chain of losses.

He splits his life into Before’s and After’s. Before Bandomeer, After Bandomeer. Before Naboo, After Naboo. Before the War.

Then there is After the War, After Anakin, After the Jedi. After Mustafar.

His heart is gone, lost to the man he called master, the woman he loved, and the brother he failed to help. He spends twenty years alone in the desert, waiting and watching and wondering, because Jedi General, High Councilor, “Negotiator” Obi-wan Kenobi could not keep his brother from his demons.

And so Obi-wan dies on Tatooine and is replaced by Crazy Old Ben, and one day he is out strolling the desert when the Force shouts at him and he comes across a boy being attacked by Tuskens.

And the rest, well, you know how that played out.

* * *

Anakin is trained for greatness, has greatness thrust upon him like a ‘saber to the side.

( _You shine brightly in the Force, young one_ , they say. _The Chosen One,_ they whisper. _Fated to bring balance._ )

Even then, greatness is not enough to save his mother. The Jedi are powerless, and he can do nothing to save those he cares about.

This lesson he learns again and again. Master Qui-Gon. His mother. His troopers. Ahsoka. Padme.

And so, when it is just him and Obi-wan once more, staring at each other through noxious haze, he laughs, bold and bitter and angry.

This is not what the Jedi promised, with their empty words of ending slavery and giving justice to the oppressed. This is not what the Force promised, its whispers seducing him to the Light, weakening him, sapping his thirst for vengeance and retribution.

No matter. He has a better master now, and the fire burns within him.

Obi-wan cuts off his limbs, leaves him a burning, smoldering wreck, but cannot end him, and in that moment, Anakin understands.

 _Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory my chains are broken_. _The Force will free me._

“Rise, Lord Vader.”

“Yes, Master.”

.

.

.

(it is not until he sees Luke that he realizes what he has lost. it is not until the mask is removed that he realizes how beautiful the light was, all these years. and he weeps, for now he knows how terribly wrong he was, but it is too little, too late.)

* * *

Luke is taught as a stopgap measure, a last weak attack, this desert-born farmboy with eyes the color of the clear Tatooine sky and hair the color of the sand his father so hated and a grin as bright as the twin-sun noon. He shines in the Force, untarnished by grief, untouched by rage, unhindered by greed, sorrow and loss tempering him into something stronger.

( _Too old_ , they say. _Too rigid in his ways. Unteachable.)_

He is taught as a last resort, when all else fails and darkness threatens the galaxy. He is taught, and taught sparingly, and he becomes _hope_.

But only for a short while, because hope must spring eternal, and there are only so many times he can save the galaxy before he is tarnished, like the rest of them, and falls from the sky.

* * *

Rey is schooled in the art of war. She is strong like the desert which raised her, which taught her the harsh lessons of loss and pain, because one day her parents walked out into the desert and they were swallowed up and never returned. She is kind, an unusual trait in one so embittered by life, by fate, by the Force.

( _Too powerful_ , he says. _I’ve seen this raw strength only once before. It didn’t scare me enough then. It does now._ )

She does not curse Fate, or the gods, or the Force, because none of those things have helped her survive.

She does curse the man who destroyed her master before she even got to know him.

She is the last of Yoda’s line, and she has traits of them all. The wisdom of one beyond her years. The precision of one hurt by the world. The passion for life like that of a youngling’s. The brilliance of her mind, the fear in her soul, the hope she embodies.

When Luke falls from his pedestal, she smashes it and picks up a lightsaber.

She is the last of the old and the first of the new, and she shines like Luke did, like Anakin did, like Obi-wan and Qui-gon and Dooku and even Yoda, once upon a time.

She carries war in her head and peace in her heart, and she is powerful and terrible and beautiful.

And she is the first, of many to come.

**Author's Note:**

> > Count Dooku is technically Yoda's grand-padawan, but since his master isn't very well known I've taken a few liberties. Besides, Yoda did teach him some lightsaber combat.  
> > Komari Vosa is Dooku's second padawan who was presumed dead after a mission gone awry. She remained alive and was tortured until she went mad and Fell.  
> > Makashi is the second of the seven lightsaber forms. Wookiepedia has a great explanation for it, but it's basically what I think of as fencing with epee.  
> > Tahl was Qui-Gon's crechemate, best friend, and canon love interest. She was blinded on a mission to Melida/Daan and died on New Apsolon after being injected by a drug that sapped her of her strength.  
> > Feemor was Qui-Gon's first padawan, assigned to him after Feemor's first master died.   
> > Xanatos was Qui-Gon's second padawan who left the Order and eventually became a Dark Jedi. He eventually suicides by jumping into a vat of acid.  
> > Bruck Chun was a fellow Initiate at the Jedi Temple. He was kind of a bully, and good riddance to him.  
> > Satine Kryze was Obi-wan's canon love interest. They met when he was a padawan, and again in the Clone Wars.  
> > Ahsoka Tano was Anakin's one and only padawan. She was removed from the Order when someone set up a crime and pinned it on her. She later becomes known as Fulcrum.
> 
> (if i've left anything out, or you are more well-versed in this and want to add something, feel free to let me know. this is by no means a comprehensive list, and i got most of this information off wookiepedia)


End file.
